Frafra not a language
Ghana is a multilingual country in West Africa, with over 80 indigenous languages spoken, and English as its colonial language, used across the country and its educational system.
These indigenous languages provide identity to the people and have some meaning to them.
In fact, the unique characteristic of the languages in Ghana is that two or more languages could have similar words and pronunciation, with the same meaning.
Examples are Twi and Fante, Dagbani and Manprusi, Talen and Nabd, and Grune and Nankane, among others.
The spelling, pronunciation and meaning of most of these languages have been corrupted due to our coexistence with the colonial masters.
It is, therefore, not too late for us to begin to put our identities and history right for posterity.
I listened to an interview with the Member of Parliament for the Talensi Constituency, Daniel Dung Mahama, on a local FM station on August 25, 2025, in which he said that the people of the Upper East Region speak Frafra. That is wrong.
The region occupies a total land surface of 8,842 square kilometres, representing about 2.7 per cent of the total land area of Ghana and has 15 districts, with about seven major traditional languages, which are Nankani, Bisah, Kusal, Nabdam (Nabd), Kassem, Gurune and Talensi (Talen). Apart from its multilingual feature, the region is also known for its unique festivals, such as the Samanpiid, Gologo, Fao, Kuure, Feok, Zekula, Boaram, Tengana and Ndaakoya festivals.
The Upper East Region has different traditional languages; however, there is none known as “Frafra”. Frafra was derived from the colonial misinterpretation of the Gurene greeting Y farafara, which literally means “excuse me”, or “hello” or “I greet you”.
Though literature associates Frafra with the dialects of Guren, Nankani, Boone and sometimes Nabd (Nabdam/ Nabit) and Talen, which is asserted to be a Frafra dialect, traditionally, there is no language spoken by any tribe in the Upper East Region known as Frafra, and neither does the word Frafra have any meaning to the people of the Upper East Region.
Tijani Ndanyenbah,
Gorogo Community.
E-mail: Shalom533@yaoo.com
